Guitar auction could set tone for market

Monday

Mar 31, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 31, 2014 at 10:07 AM

The market for vintage guitars is tuning up again after years of hitting flat notes. On Wednesday and Thursday, California collector Hank Risan will put 265 of his 700 guitars on the block in the biggest such auction in recent memory.

The market for vintage guitars is tuning up again after years of hitting flat notes.

On Wednesday and Thursday, California collector Hank Risan will put 265 of his 700 guitars on the block in the biggest such auction in recent memory.

Up for sale are electric and acoustic guitars by D’Angelico, Gibson, Gretsch, Martin, Washburn and others from the 1890s to the 1950s — a period many collectors view as a golden era of guitar-making.

A 1930 Martin OM-45 deluxe acoustic, one of only 11 made, lists a starting bid of $875,000 and is expected to be the highlight of the auction at Guernsey’s in New York.

The sale is being closely watched not only by guitar enthusiasts looking for an instrument. Dealers are looking for a fix on prices after the market cratered in 2008.

“This is the first time in six years, basically, that there has been this sort of opportunity to see whether there has been a recovery,” said Peter Szego, a collector and former architect who last year edited a history book on American guitars.

There have been a few recent signs of life in the market. In December, Christie’s sold the 1964 Fender Stratocaster guitar owned and played by Bob Dylan at his legendary performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 for $965,000, an all-time record for a guitar at auction.

That beat out an Eric Clapton-owned 1956 Fender Stratocaster that fetched $959,000 in 2004 at Christie’s.

The breadth and size of Risan’s collection and the fact that this is not a celebrity auction make this sale a better gauge of the health of the broader vintage guitar market, experts said.

Catherine Jacobs, co-owner of Philadelphia-based Vintage Instruments, which reviewed the condition of the guitars for the auction, said it is rare, for instance, for a Washburn guitar to be up for auction, let alone several of them at once.

Other standouts from the auction are a 1959 Gibson J-200 previously owned by Eric Clapton, and a 1941 Gibson SJ-200 once owned by Stephen Stills, each expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.